Xi’An almost didn’t happen. We bought our plane tickets and booked our hostel, then Sara Beth was told she had to work over the weekend. She couldn’t go.
I didn’t want to go without her, because we were both excited to see the Terracotta Warriors and the historic city of Xi’An together. She encouraged me to go, despite my resignations and resistance. I’m glad she did.
The weekend could’ve been a disastrous and costly failure, but it wasn’t. I learned and and experienced ancient history, met new friends, and saw a new cultural side of China.
View Xi'an, Shaanxi in a larger map
Juggling Logistics
The day prior to our departure, I was on the phone with the hostel.
They organized the Terracotta Warriors tour and wanted to make every accommodation for our group of six.
Zsa Zsa, our hostel tour guide, planned for an eleven person bus to pick us up at the airport and drive right to the Terracotta Warriors.
Everyone I talked to at the hostel was very helpful, even after I had to break the news we all wouldn’t make it.
SB and two of her coworkers bailed last minute because of work. Only three of our original six went: Katie, Samah, and I.
The small group, however, was easier to manage, more personal, and just as fun.
The Follower
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| Early morning boarding |
Our luck turned quick, however. Zsa Zsa received my late-night cancellations and downsized the eleven-person bus to a more manageable car.
The driver dropped us outside the Terracotta Warriors to wait for the rest of the tour group.
We walked to a nearby Dico’s, a Taiwanese fast food restaurant, to grab breakfast. Halfway to the Dico’s, we noticed a creepy woman following us.
At first she walked a couple paces behind us, then she was next to us. She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away from our small group. I shook her free and walked faster, checking the valuables in my pockets. She wasn’t a pickpocket.
Samah yelled at the woman to leave, but she still followed. Katie stopped to let her pass, but the woman stopped too and crowded close to Katie. We were weirded out and a little scared.
She grabbed my arm a second time, but I was ready.
She followed us into the Dico’s and prevented us from ordering. She stood between us and the counter, demanding that we leave.
“Please, this way, please,” she said.
She guided us to the door, but we weren’t leaving.
Finally, between our broken Mandarin, hand gestures, and disinterest, we were able to get her to leave.
“Bye, bye,” she said. She left quicker than she arrived.
It was weird, and we still don’t know what she wanted. Between the lack of sleep and unwanted visitor, I questioned my decision to go.
Zsa Zsa arrived a few minutes later. It was a comfort to see her. We met up with rest of the tour group and entered…
The Terracotta Warriors
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| Zsa Zsa (center), our tour guide (Pit One) |
didn’t have to jostle to see the statues.
The compound is broken up into three pits in the order they were discovered. We visited them in a jumbled order. First, we visited Pit Two; second, Pit Three; and finally, Pit One, the most famous.
It’s still an active archeologist site. We viewed the warriors from elevated platforms encircling the pits.
Guests can view museum displays of completed statues and other artifacts on the platforms, but Zsa Zsa’s stories and perceptions of the pits were my favorite part of our visit.
(You can read about the official history on Wikipedia.)
Emperor Qin Shi Huang built the warriors in 220 BC to protect his tomb in the afterlife. He didn’t build them; he had 800,000 slave workers build the statues for him.
He became king at 13 years-old and unified China’s many provinces through military victory, hence why he was emperor.
Emperor Qin was crazy.
He drank mercury to live forever, which inevitably killed him.
When a regiment of statues was finished, he buried them with a roof over their head. That’s why the warriors stand in alleyways.
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| Reassembled statues standing in the alleys between roof supports (Pit One) |
The roofs collapsed due to earthquakes, invading armies, and time. When the roofs collapsed, they smashed the statues inside.
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| Crumbled statues and roof sections (Pit Two) |
In Pit Two (the first pit we visited), archaeologists excavated three-quarters of the site down to the roofs, while the other quarter exposes the alleys of broken statues.
During excavation, archaeologists discovered only one warrior of the 8,000+ that was completely intact, Zsa Zsa’s favorite, the Kneeling Archer.
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| The Kneeling Archer (Pit Two) |
She said the statue is magical. It survived nearly 2,200 years of military invasions and looting, earthquakes, and occasional pillagers without crumbling.
The Kneeling Archer also retains some of its original color. Slaves painted the warriors with thirteen different colors, but most of the pigment dissolved over the millennia. This statue still has bright red hasps on the back of his armor.
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| Red pigment and shoe details of The Kneeling Archer (Pit Two) |
Furthermore, the Kneeling Archer retained details that tell us the inspiration’s life story.
Zsa Zsa said that the nail marks on his shoe bottom indicate he was a married man, because only soldiers with a wife would have those well made shoes. Historians think he was middle class due to the arches of his shoes.
Every warrior is unique with little details that tell a greater life story, but people are still perplexed by who the statues’ faces were modeled after.
Our guide said that the craftsmen who created the statues used the faces of other slaves. Historians can’t confirm this, however, because Emperor Qin killed many of the 800,000 people who worked on his project.
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| A sea of unknown faces (Pit One) |
I am humbled by how much care and work people put into the Terracotta Warriors both to build and now restore.
Zsa Zsa said that one statue takes about three to four months to piece back together like a puzzle. At that rate, it will take about 110 years to restore the 7,000 soldiers still left in fragments.
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| Finished and unfinished restorations (Pit One) |
Their workload is about to get heavier, though. Zsa Zsa said there could be as many as 26 other burial chambers between the Terracotta Warriors and Emperor Qin’s burial mound a half-mile away.
What’s inside the other 26 chambers? She speculated that there could be statues of entertainers, his court members, and other important people in his empire.
After the Terracotta Warriors, Zsa Zsa took us to Emperor Qin’s burial mound. At first, it was difficult to see. The mound looks like a normal hill amidst the mountains, because archaeologists can’t excavate it yet.
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| Zsa Zsa and Emperor Qin's burial mound |
Historical documents indicate that he was buried with his treasures, and Zsa Zsa thinks Emperor Qin built a moat of mercury and other booby traps to keep unwanted pillagers away.
Our guide also said dozens of treasure hunters burrowed into the mound to try and pilfer valuables, but no one reached the chamber yet and few returned alive.
Folklore aside, archaeologists will open the burial chamber in about twenty years or more, once they can guarantee the preservation of artifacts inside.
The air outside is much drier and more polluted than the interior atmosphere, and scientists could only have seconds to preserve the artifacts inside before they deteriorate beyond recognition.
Emperor Qin’s tomb sounds like it’s straight out of an Indiana Jones film, a tomb of treasure and historic artifacts with an element of danger and mystery. I can’t wait until they open it in a couple decades!
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| Samah and Katie at Pit One |
We really enjoyed the Terracotta Warriors, Emperor Qin’s lunacy, and the folklore shared with us. I’m glad we went despite the lost companions, lack of sleep, and near assault.
The Terracotta Warrior experience taught me how diverse and overwhelming China’s history can be. There’s a lot of it, and no one person has the whole story.
My lessons in Chinese history weren’t over, however. We stayed in downtown Xi’An that night, and it’s a city still protected by the walls of dynasties from over two thousand years ago!
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| Stay tuned for Part 2, where we explore Xi'An's ancient dynasties and Muslim night markets. |
This is so damn cool. I read and stop and think...damn that is my nephew....little Tom Eddie....this is just so cool. Thank you for living life to the fullest and sharing it with the rest of us. Take care.
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